Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/703

j E W J E W 6170 to mentioned by Solinus ; but it was certainly used there in pre-Roman times. Barrows of the Bronze Age have yielded beads, buttons, rings, armlets, and other personal ornaments of jet. The early supply was probably obtained from the Yorkshire coast, near Whitby a locality which still yields the finest varieties. The Whitby jet occurs in isolated masses, of irregular shape, but frequently more or less lenticular, imbedded in bituminous shales near the base of the Upper Lias. The particular horizon of the jet-rock is known to geologists as the zone of Ammonites serpentinus, Opinion is divided as to the exact nature and origin of the jet : some regard it as a variety of lignite, others as a kind of cannel coal, and others again as a hardened form of bitumen. There is little doubt that the jet has in all cases resulted from the decay of organic matter. Microscopic sections of jet frequently reveal a ligneous structure, in most cases of coniferous type. It has been suggested that masses of wood brought down by a river have drifted out to sea, where, becoming water-logged, they have sunk and have gradually been covered with a deposit of fine black mud, beneath which the decay has slowly proceededt Possibly bituminous matter may have been distilled from this decaying vegetation, and deposited between the layers of shale in its neighbourhood. Drops of liquid bitumen are frequently found in the fossils of the jet-rock, and inflammable gas, derived from the bituminous shales, is not uncommon in the jet-mines. Moreover, scales of fish and other fossils of the jet-rock are frequently converted into jet, the bituminous matter having replaced the original tissues. When jet is heated, it betrays its bituminous character by burning with a dense pungent smoke, which was formerly reputed to possess powerful medicinal virtues. At present the material is used only for trivial ornaments, principally for mourning jewellery. To obtain jet, the shale is systematically mined not only at its outcrop in the cliffs but in the inland dales of the Cleveland district. It is now rare to find washed jet upon the sea-shore, but formerly a considerable quantity was thus obtained. The best hard jet is exceedingly tough, and may be readily carved or turned on the lathe, while its compact texture allows it to receive a high polish. The final polish is given by means of rouge, which produces a beautiful velvety surface. The softer kinds, not capable of being freely worked, are known as bastard jet. From the estuarine beds of the Lower Oolites of Yorkshire, a soft jet is obtained ; but, though occasionally used for ornamental purposes, it is far inferior to the true Whitby jet. Spanish jet has been largely imported into Whitby, but is deficient in hardness and lustre. Cannel coal from Scotland is occasionally used in the place of jet ; and it is not uncom mon for brooches to be made of a carving of Whitby jet set in a plain polished rim of either Spanish jet or caunel. For descriptions of jet and jet-working see The Yorkshire Lias, by Ralph Tate and J. F. Blake, 1876 ; and a paper on Whitby Jet, by J. A. Bower, in Jour. Soc. Arts, December 19, 1873. JEW, THE WANDERING. The legend of a Jew doomed to wander until the day of judgment, for an insult offered to Christ, is first mentioned by Roger of Wendover in the Chronicle completed by Matthew Paris, who received the story from an Armenian bishop, who visited England in the year 1228. As told in Matthew s Historia Major, the legend runs that the wanderer s name was Carta- philus, that he was doorkeeper of Pilate s palace, and that as Jesus was led out to be crucified he struck him on the neck, saying, " Go, Jesus, go on faster ; why dost thou linger 1 " Jesus replied, " I go, but thou shalt remain waiting till I return." The Armenian bishop, if his French servant and interpreter is to be trusted, said that this wanderer had dined with him shortly before his leaving home, and that he was now a penitent man and had been baptized by Ananias, who also baptized Paul, under the name of Joseph. At the time of the crucifixion he was thirty years of age ; whenever he reaches the age of one hundred he becomes faint, and when he becomes conscious again he is as young as when his doom was pronounced. He never smiles, refuses all gifts, and narrates many ancient events to those who come from far and near to listen. On the same authority rests the somewhat later account by Philippe de Mousket in his Chronique rimee. The English chronicler states that the bishop s statement was in reply to a question whether he had seen or heard of one Joseph, said to have been present at the crucifixion to be preserved in the world as a witness of that event. It would appear, therefore, that there was already in existence a legend of an undying Jew, although nothing was intimated of his insult to Christ. The idea of wandering did not enter into the legend until a later period, when persons pretending to be the undying Jew appeared in various parts of Europe. Near the middle of the 1 6th century the legend appears in Germany, brought there by a man who professed to be the "Ewige Jude" himself. He appeared at Hamburg, in 1547, giving his name as Ahasuerus, and stating that he had been a shoemaker in Jerusalem who would not suffer Christ to rest at his door when fainting under the weight of the cross. He struck Jesus, and bade him move on. Jesus said, " I will stand here and rest, but thou shalt go on until the last day." This story, however, also rests upon the authority of an irresponsible reporter. It is attributed to Dr Paulus von Eizen, bishop of Schleswig, whose long conversations with Ahasuerus are given, in a work by one Chrysostomus Dudulaeus Westphalus, probably a pseudonym. This was published some years after the death of Paulus von Eizen, which occurred in 1598, and its aim is to make the story as sensational as possible as a " warning." This earliest known book on the legend, published at Leipsic, 1602, professes to be derived from a previous one : Strange Report of a Jew born at Jerusalem, who pretends he was present at the crucifixion of Christ ; newly printed at Leyden. Other small works appeared somewhat later, as at "Augspurg, 1619," and elsewhere, and were continued throughout the 17th century, these containing rumours of the Jew s appearance in Hamburg, Dantzic, Naumburg, Liibeck, Brussels, Moscow, and Madrid. Rudolph Botoreus, parliamentary advocate of Paris (Comm. histor., 1604), mentions contemptuously the rumours of the appearance of this Jew in Germany, Spain, and Italy, and the popular credulity. The most important account of any of these monomaniacs or pretenders is that given of one in Paris (1644) by The Turkish Spy (book iii., letter i.). " One day I had the curiosity to discourse with him in several languages ; and I found him master of all those I could speak. I conversed with him five or six hours together in Arabic." "The common people are ready to adore him ; and the very fear of the multitude restrains the magistrates from offering any violence to this impostor." From a letter of Madame de Mazarin to Madame de Bouillon, it appears that an individual appeared in England in the beginning of the 18th century professing to have been an officer of rank in Jerusalem who for an insult given to Jesus was doomed to live and wander. It is said that the universities sent professors to cross-examine him, and that many were satisfied of the truth of his story. Several pretenders of the kind appeared in England in the last century. Brand remembered to have seen one going about the streets of Newcastle muttering " Poor John alone." It is difficult, however, to discover whether in all these cases the role of the Wandering Jew was assumed or was added to aged beggars by popular credulity. The names given to these wanderers are various. Cartaphilus is probably Kapra <j>io<s, the " much beloved," XIII. 85